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The Obscurum Asylum
"The days are getting shorter, I don't have much time left. It's so cold, there's just no hope left." ''-Tyler The Brain Disease I sat outside the hospital room, checking the time on the wall clock and glancing at the door every once in a while. This is the third day on end that I'd been here, and I was starting to lose my edge. I became jumpy every time someone walked past, and I couldn't stay awake very long anymore. For three days now, my brother had been in the hospital, diagnosed with an incurable brain disease. For three days, they've been working non-stop to try to find a cure. And for three days, I've been worried out of my mind. My brother's name is Kenny. He's only nine years old, and is already staring Death right in the face. He stands at four foot six, and is very scrawny. He's barely sixty pounds. He has scruffy black hair and hazel eyes. He has freckles all over his face and usually bore a cheerful smile, ironic due to the fact that we are both orphaned and homeless. He had nothing to be thankful for. Finally, right before I dozed off again, a young, African American nurse came out of my brother's hospital room. "You're brother is doing better. He'd like to speak to you now," said the nurse cheerfully. I looked like a mess. My black hair was messed up with serious bedhead. I had dark bags under my wide blue eyes. I hadn't eaten much lately, so I was almost as scrawny as my brother. My clothes were filthy and wrinkled, and I was barefoot. I had wanted to ask one of the nurses if I could freshen up, but no one offered anything, so I just kept quiet. I walked into the room and saw my brother laying in a blue hospital bed. He was very pale and even scrawnier than usual. He looked like he had been in great pain, but he still had his ridiculous smile on him. It was the same smile that made me feel confident through all these years, after our parents were killed in the car crash, after we weren't accepted by every foster home, after we were forced to live on the streets, no relatives to keep us in their home. Even though he was the little brother, he was themost reliable one, he kept me strong. "H-Hey, Tyler," said Kenny, struggling to talk. "How are you holding on, Kenny?" I asked, though the answer was obvious. He was barely holding on, and if a cure wasn't found soon, well, I'd be an only child as well as an orphan. "I'm not too bad," he lied. He was so scrawny, he was getting wrinkled. He looked as if he had aged a hundred years from the young cheerful boy that was my brother. He was even losing hair, and the hair around his bald spot had turned a sickly shade of gray. "Don't lie, Kenny," I said, choking back tears. It was just too much pain to see my brother like this. "I pr-promise I'll get better. Don't worry about me," stuttered Kenny. "I'm not gonna leave you until you're out of this hospital," I said. "Then you'll be out of here one way or another, but soon," said Kenny, grimly. Yet he still had his ridiculous grin on his face. I could tell that it wouldn't be long until he started going hysterical. He didn't have much time. "Excuse me sir, but visiting time is over now," said the nurse. "Just give me two more minutes," I said. "Alright," she replied. I went back to Kenny's side. "Promise me something, Kenny. Promise me you'll get better," I said, tears welling up in my eyes. "I will, don't worry. But pr-promise me something, too, Tyler," started Kenny. A tear had began to form in his eye. "Yes, anything," I said. "Promise me that no matter what happens, you'll keep safe," he said. "Don't talk like that. You ''will get better," I demanded. "I will. Just, promise," said Kenny. He was straining to talk now. "Fine. I promise," I said. "Sir, visiting time is over now," said the nurse. "Alright, I'll be going. Get well, Kenny," I said, waving and giving one last look at Kenny's direction. I would have stayed longer if I would have known this really would be the last time I saw my brother, at least in freedom. The Streets After I left the hospital, I walked back down the familiar streets to the alleyway I called home. There wasn't much in it. There were two large cardboard boxes, large enough to fit a whole dining table in each. Both boxes were moldy and old, and the insides were lined with straw and pigeon feathers for warmth. I had the larger box which was on the left, and my brother used to stay in the smaller one on the right. I went into my box through the flap I had carved. In there I saw my few belongings: a stolen Swiss Army Knife, one extra pair of clothes (just as filthy as my current ones), broken dirty sandals, a straw hat, a flashlight, a pillow, a sleeping bag, and a photo frame of my mom and dad before the car crash. I looked at it for a few seconds until I went under my pillow to find my entertainment section. I had a Game Boy that I had burglarized, which I had combined with a solar panel that I had taken to create a solar-powered Gameboy. I looked through my small collection of lifted games, Pokemon Gold Version, Pokemon Ruby Version, Dragon Ball Z Supersonic Warriors, Mario Kart, and Super Mario Bros. 3. I played them all before, so I had little interest for it. I set that aside and found a Playboy magazine I had stolen from a fat hobo. Not feeling in the mood, I took out my Rubik's Cube (which I didn't steal, surprisingly. It was the last birthday gift I ever got) and started trying to solve it. Not being very good at it, I set it down after a while and lay down my head for a while. I must have drifted off to sleep, because when I woke up the sun had started to go down. I grabbed my flashlight and crawled out of my box. I'd never done this before, but I decided that I would check out my brother's box today. The inside of his box was practically the same as mine. The walls were lined with hay and pigeon feathers. He had a pillow, a sleeping bag, a flashlight, and a Swiss Army Knife. I looked under his pillow to see what he had, and I found a few old Marvel comic books and a Spider Man action figure. He also had a picture of my parents. I was about to leave when I noticed a piece of paper sticking out from under his sleeping bag. I picked it up and found a business card. It read: The Obscurum Asylum A Home for all Unwanted Souls 574-299-4964 1470 Hampshire Drive I didn't know what the Obscurum Asylum was, but the address made sense to me. About seven years ago, I had a friend who lived right down the street from that house. From the way he described it, it was a rickety old house that had a single old man living in it. The man died in a plane crash while traveling to Sydney, Australia, to visit his family. However, after the house was boarded up, there was always a light peeking through the boarded windows and smoke coming from the chimney, and if you were just quiet enough, you could almost hear faint screaming coming from below the house. The idea of my brother having anything to do with that house, Asylum or not, made me shudder. I stole the business card and went to bed for the night before returning to my normal schedule of going to the hospital in the morning. I woke up the next day when the sun was already high up in the sky, about noon. It was much later than when I usually got up, so I dashed out of my box so I could hurry over to the hospital. Yet right when I was reaching North Michigan Street from West Bartlett Street, I ran into the three people I really didn't want to see at that time: Emerick brothers. They were some of the stupidest, most racist kids around the city of South Bend. Preston, the oldest one, was well over six feet. He was very fat and had a scruff of dirty blond hair on the top of his head. He always wore a pair of glasses with a big crack through the whole right lens. The other two, Lucas and Mason, were twins, but looked nothing like each other. Lucas was tall, almost as tall as Preston, but not as fat, he was more muscle. He had blond straight hair and blue eyes. Mason was tall himself, but he was the shortest of the three. He was around 5'11" and had a dark brown mohawk. He also had blue eyes. Just like Preston, he was fat. "Where ya going, nerd?" asked Lucas. "Leave me alone, wiggers. I'm not in the mood for you right now," I said, quickening my pace. "Excuse me? Who are you calling wiggers? Why don't you shut your dirty Arab face?" asked Lucas. "Sure, right after you kiss my dirty Arab ass," I said. I stopped walking. I was done running from these guys. "Oh, so you're feeling smart today?" asked Preston. "Very. You know the reason for your low intelligence is mainly based off your lack of caring parents and you being a gay Republican, right?" I snapped. "You're just asking for it, now!" shouted Lucas. He charged after me, so I got running. I turned the corner and saw Memorial Hospital right down the street. Yet my speed was no match for Lucas's, so I had to get away. I'd never make it in time. I saw a taxi open up right then and an elderly couple walked out. I dashed madly to it and jumped into the seat, pushing away the elderly couple. Only later would I find it strange that both of them had glowing yellow eyes and stitches all across their face; I was too busy trying to get away. "Where to?" asked the cab driver. "Anywhere but here," I said, panting. "McDonalds it is, I'm hungry," said the driver. I closed my door and he started driving just as the Emericks caught up. Soon, the troublesome boys were out of my sight, and I was faced with a new problem: how I'd pay the driver. I looked so poor, I was surprised the driver would even take me anywhere. Now I'd have to trick him to get away. Soon we pulled up to the McDonalds, and the cab driver asked for the money. "So, kid. Where's the money? That'll be six fifty," said the driver. "Well, you see, I don't have any money on me right now, and you said you were hungry earlier. Could you be so generous as to say you came here for a lunch break and forget picking me up?" I asked in my best poor-helpless-child voice. "No can do, just make with the dough or I'll call the cops," said the driver. I noticed he was fat, like a giant pile of lard in a taxi driver uniform. I could outrun him easy. "Okay, let me get my wallet out of my pocket," I said, standing up and pretending to get something out of my pocket. I don't know who I was fooling, I was so poor I couldn't afford a Ziploc bag, much less a wallet. Apparently, though, he was so stupid that he believed it. In my pockets I found exactly what I was looking for, my pepper spray. I had once stollen it out of an old woman's purse as the perfect crime. She tried to reach for her pepper spray to stop me, but it was the pepper spray I had stollen. I pulled it up, and before he could react, I sprayed it all over the cab and started running. I heard him stumble out of the car, shouting from pain and at me, telling me to get back there. Of course I wouldn't listen, I was too busy running. I ran and ran, until I was genuinely lost. I was around Jackson Middle School, so I couldn't have been farther from the hospital. I guess I wouldn't be able to visit Kenny today. It would take me the rest of the day to make it back to my alley. After an exhausting day of trekking and getting lost, I finally made it to my small little alley. I climbed into my sleeping bag and drifted into a deep sleep. I had a nightmare that night. I saw my brother in chains, held high above the ground. He was cut all over and was bleeding. There were marks on him that looked like he was whipped. Yet he was still smiling. "I knew you'd come," he said in a small voice. He made a small laugh and then passed out. I tried to move, to get to my brother, but I felt cold. Way too cold. I realized I was literally freezing. The ice crawled up my legs and up my torso, until only my head remained. I fought through the cold and managed one last yell, shouting to my brother, but it was soon choked out as my face froze over. I awoke with a start. I was sweating. It was early morning. Time to get to the hospital. The Unknown Disappearance I went the long way to Memorial Hospital as to not attract attention to myself by the Emerick brothers. It took me much longer than it would have if I had taken the shorter way, but it was all worth not getting into a confrontation. When I finally arrived at the hospital, I walked in and went to the wing for patients. I located the room and knocked, as visiting period should be starting right about now. Instead of the usual nurse, however, there was a woman who appeared to be in her forties. She had blond hair and green eyes. "May I help you?" she asked in a bothered voice. "I'm here to see my brother," I said. "You must be at the wrong room," she said. I checked the door number again, reassuring myself. "No. My brother Kenny is in this room," I said. "You must have gotten your facts wrong. This room has been empty for three weeks. I was just sterilizing it for the next patient," said the woman, getting really edgy now. "I'm serious! This is my brother's room!" I protested in disbelief. "Let me check for myself," I said, barging in right past the woman. "Hey!" she protested. She grabbed me by the arm, but I shrugged her off. I kept going, until I saw the thing I had feared: an empty bed. "N-No, that's not possible! This is a joke, right? A practical joke, a gag! You moved Kenny into a different room yesterday, right?" I asked, in total disbelief. I knew the answer, as weird as it was. Kenny had somehow disappeared out of this hospital, out of existence. Only I had the memory of him. "I just told you, the room has been empty for weeks! Now get lost before I call the cops!" commanded the nurse. "No! This has to be a joke!" I shouted, flinging myself onto Kenny's bed. I sniffed the sheets, trying to find the smell of Kenny, the smell of anyone who had used this bed. No, it just smelled like fresh laundry. "Hey! I just cleaned that!" the nurse shouted. She ran over to the phone and began to dial. In a flurry I began to search through the bed, for any clue of Kenny, just to know this wasn't real. I flung off the pillow and found a business card, similar to the one I had found in his box two nights ago, except this one was black with white lettering. The Obscurum Asylum Thank you for your most generous donation! We will be sure to return all un-salvaged parts to your address at your earliest convenience! For any complaints, please visit our community center at La Salle Academy! Or contact us at 1-800-YOU-LOST (1-800-968-5678) On the back of the card was a weird logo, looking like the symbol of a the Psychic type in Pokemon cards, exept this eye was red and the iris was a full yellow circle with a black star in the middle. I had no idea what this meant, but I knew it was related to the one I had found in Kenny's box. Whoever owns this Obscurum Asylum has Kenny, I'm sure of it. The dream I had last night may have been trying to alert me of this before hand. I also knew this had happened yesterday, when I was too busy being chased by Republicans and trying to locate my way home after escaping from a fat taxi driver to actually go visit my brother. The one day that I break my trend, the unthinkable happens. Right then and there, two muscular looking dudes in doctor attire came in. Both of them were wearing sunglasses. I don't know if it was my imagination, but there appeared to be a faint yellow glowing from behind the glasses. There faces were riddled with scars, as if they had brought a toothpick to a knife battle. I found it all strange. It also triggered another memory, but I couldn't quite place it where. At that moment, though, all I knew was that I wasn't going to get caught. I dashed in between the two men, who were surprisingly slow, and into the corridor, trying to escape the hospital. I ran all the way to the elevator and hammered the button down to the first floor, which I reached with no interference. I dashed out, without looking back, and headed straight for my alley. I reached there in only ten minutes with my pace and sat down in front of my box, huffing and puffing. It was only when I turned around when I gasped. Kenny's box was gone, no sign of it anywhere. There wasn't even any sign that it had been there in the first place. I began to tear up, hoping this was all just one nightmare, until I noticed another black business card where Kenny's box should be. The Obscurum Asylum Sorry, this subject had to be taken in for testing. For retrieval, please wait three hundred years and then call this number: 1-800-OBS-CURE (1-800-627-2873) For immediate retrieval, please lug your soon-to-be slightly animate corpse over to our warehouse in La Salle Academy! Note: Come empty handed. Resistance is futile "Great," I said to myself. "Kenny's been kidnapped by a box-stealing psycho who has the ability to erase people's memories. Just great," I muttered. Though I wanted to go out right now and find this psycho at 1470 Hampshire Drive or La Salle Academy, I knew that it would be best to just go to sleep for the night. I wouldn't be of any use to Kenny if I'm tired. The Academy I awoke in the morning very early, as I could not contain my anxiety to know if Kenny's okay. I decided to get out there now and begin my search. Hesitant to charge the home in Hampshire Drive, I decided to go to La Salle Academy first and try to find information. It took me many hours to get there, but I finally did. Yet when I got there, I didn't see anything that looked like a warehouse. The Academy was a long black-brick building with two floors. There was a spacious court in the back with two open-air basketball courts, a few baseball courts, a soccer field, a tennis court, and a track, but no warehouse. Finally, just as I was about to give up, I saw two large garage-style buildings with shut doors in the back. They didn't look like much, but I could make out the faint glimmer of light from beneath the shut doors. I walked up to them and leaned down to peak into the light. I saw several shadows moving and sounds of things being moved, like boxes. I waited there for a long while to see if they'd stop, but they didn't. I waited for a half hour until I mustered up the courage to knock on the garage door. All the sounds immediately stopped, and a few seconds later, I heard a lone pair of footsteps come towards the garage door. Category:Horror Category:Gozon Category:Story Category:Science Fiction Category:Mystery Category:Not-so-happy ending